Mystery of Private Jet That Vanished on Cold, Snowy Night in 1971 With Five People on Board Is Finally Solved

Daily Mail ^ | 11 June 2024 | Emma Richter

[nickcarraway]

A private jet that vanished in 1971 with five passengers onboard was miraculously found by an expert during a recent recovery mission.

On January 27, 1971, a jet took off on a snowy and cold night from the Burlington International Airport to Providence, Rhode Island. The plane was carrying two crew members and three employees from Cousin's Properties, an Atlanta-based development company.

The flight vanished and George Nikita, Donald Myers, Frank Wilder, Richard Kirby Windsor, and Robert Ransom Williams III were never found, despite multiple searches conducted over the last five decades.

[KC Burke]

A guy i did some business with in the mid 70s had a Commander that was similar. Felt like he fuselage was going to drag on the runway — very low slung.

[SunkenCiv]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9B85TxLPw0

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Don’t keep us in suspense! Did it turn up on an island in the Bermuda Triangle?

[MayflowerMadam]

When I saw the title I was thinking it might be Boggs and Begich. Nope.

[Deplorable American1776]

Rest in Peace..the plane should be left where it is ..

[Theodore R.]

Boggs and Begich crashed in the fall of 1972.

[x]

Did it turn up on an island in the Bermuda Triangle?

The Bridgewater Triangle would have been closer, but no, it's at the bottom of Lake Champlain.

If you followed the link, you could also read about a WWII plane that was just found in New Guinea. No sign of Uncle Bosie, though.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“If you followed the link”

Huh, are you nuts?

[Tell It Right]

In the cockpit was a box preserving a letter titled: "The contents of this letter will send LBJ to prison."

LOL

[ifinnegan]

Lake Champlain is the other way than to RI.

Must have gone down on take off.

[LadyDoc]

Isn't lake Champlain the wrong direction?

[Rockingham]

The low slung cabin of the Aero Commander was one of its attractions because it made for easier, car-like entry and exit. This especially appealed to women, children, and older pilots and passengers. Many of them found clambering up on the wing of a light airplane disconcerting or physically difficult.

That was the case with my mother, who gritted her teeth at climbing into the Navion my father had painstaking restored. She sighed wistfully though at the Aero Commander that shared a hangar with the Navion. A wealthy older couple owned the Commander but rarely flew it. To my mother's eyes, it looked like a luxury sedan with a wing and twin engines on top.